In case you don’t know, Wall Street was first built by the Dutch to stave off the English. Later on, it evolved to represent much more than just a Manhattan address. Wall Street runs at a stretch of eight blocks in the Lower Manhattan area. And we can all safely say that the Wall Street is more than just a location, the term has been adopted to describe all the US’ financial institutions and economic power. Let us have a look at the timeline of the Wall Street rise-
The Wall Street as a Wooden Wall –
1652– During the Anglo-Dutch wars, when England planned to attack and thus constructed a wooden wall as a defense. The wall featured cannons and extended between two gates.
1711– The Wall Street was named as the main site for the government-sanctioned slave market in New York City.
1732– An attempt was made for the creation of the first public library by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts which is located in City Hall on Wall Street.
1817– The Buttonwood traders used the Philadelphia Merchants Exchange as a model and created their own version and named it the New York Stock and Exchange Board.
1835– The great fire of 1835 destroyed about 700 buildings in lower Manhattan wherein the Wall Street suffered numerous losses.
1837– Samuel Morse started a telegraph demonstration office on the Wall Street. The Brokers welcomed the telegraph and the area soon started filling with telegraph wires that allowed brokerages to communicate.
Birth of the Stock Ticker
1867– The stock ticker was introduced on the Wall Street. It was the invention of Edward A Calahan of the American Telegraph Company.
1870– The first Wall Street stock brokerage owned by women was opened.
1882– The first electricity plant was launched on Pearl Street by Thomas Edison that powered 7,200 lamps on the Wall Street.
1889– The Wall Street Journal debuted that had a two-cent cover price. The most popular feature was the ‘Dow-Jones Industrial Average’.
1903– NYSE opens. After almost two years of construction, the New York Stock Exchange building opened at 18 Broad Street.
1920– There was an explosion at J.P Morgan. There was a wagon parked in front of the Assay Office that exploded. The explosion was so strong that it echoed through the streets and also sent a car flying into the 34th floor of the Equitable Building. Thirty people were killed in the explosion and many were left injured. Investigations claimed that the attack was aimed at J.P Morgan’s bank.
The Crash of 1929 –
1929– The Stock market had surged as much as 50% starting in the year 1928. But it came to an end shortly. The day is now called Black Friday and was the day when the market dropped by 11%. Almost 16 million shares were traded away and the market lost $30 million.
1987– The Wall Street again experienced one of the largest single-day crashes and faced $500 billion losses.
2001– This year the financial district faced terror attacks. This resulted in over 2996 deaths and 6000 injuries; it also destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
Wall Street: A History by Charles R. Geisst, published by Oxford University Press, 2018.
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 by Edward G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, published by Oxford University Press, 2000.
A Short and Remarkable History of New York City by Jane Mushabac, published by Fordham University Press, 1999.
The Rise of Wall Street, Skyscraper Museum.
More From The Enterprise World
